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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27153421">Wanted: Gunpowder</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c'>sanctum_c</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Renegade Endless Summer 2019 - Clarity Flavour [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aerith Gainsborough Lives, Aerith's Moving Castle, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Comedy, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Fireworks, Gunpowder, Hell House, Light-Hearted, Multi, Not Advent Children (Compilation of FFVII) Compliant, Not Before Crisis (Compilation of FFVII) Compliant, Not Compilation of Final Fantasy VII Compliant, Not Crisis Core (Compilation of FFVII) Compliant, Not Dirge of Cerberus (Compilation of FFVII) Compliant, Not Final Fantasy VII Remake Compliant, OT3, POV Aerith Gainsborough, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Post-Final Fantasy VII</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2019-07-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2019-07-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-20 10:21:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>741</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27153421</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“Where would we get gunpowder?”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>The question seemed to give Cloud some consternation; he turned around with an exasperated expression. “What?”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>"Gunpowder. You know-“ Aeris made an exploding noise and flung her hands apart. “-that kind of thing.”</i>
</p><hr/><p>Aeris asks an unusual - and possibly troubling - question.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart/Cloud Strife</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Renegade Endless Summer 2019 - Clarity Flavour [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1982017</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Wanted: Gunpowder</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for the prompt 'Fireworks'</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Where would we get gunpowder?”</p><p>The question seemed to give Cloud some consternation; he turned around with an exasperated expression. “What?”</p><p>“Gunpowder. You know-“ Aeris made an exploding noise and flung her hands apart. “-that kind of thing.”</p><p>“Um.” He glanced at Tifa who, taking the question in her stride and continuing to dry a glass behind the bar, seemed a little concerned also.</p><p>“I think we were wondering why you’d want it in the first place.”</p><p>Ah. Skipped a few steps. “For fireworks.”</p><p>Tifa frowned. “You want to make your own fireworks?”</p><p>Aeris shook her head. “No.” She patted the nearest wall. “I was thinking we could rely on the house for that.”</p><p>“The house?” Tifa blinked at her slowly. Cloud, however, nodded.</p><p>“The other ones in Midgar.” He met Tifa’s curious glance. “Hell Houses in Sector Six. They, ah, could fire missiles.”</p><p>“Missiles?!” Tifa stared at the ceiling with alarm. “You mean we’ve been living in an explosives factory all this time?”</p><p>“No!” Aeris hurried over to the bar. “I mean, yes, she could do it if she had the right things to eat. She can’t just produce explosives out of loose change.”</p><p>“Really worried about litter in Midgar now.” Cloud was frowning.</p><p>“Guess you missed the unexploded missile in the church?” Cloud’s eyes widened. “Yep. More than plausible the other Hell Houses found ammo caches and other chemicals to eat. And that’s why they can do that.”</p><p>“But our one… We just feed it relatively mundane things,” Tifa said slowly.</p><p>Aeris nodded. “About the worst I think she can do is spray battery-acid over people.”</p><p>“But you still want to make it capable of producing explosives?” Tifa leant against the bar. “How risky are we talking.”</p><p>“Well.” This was going to be a little tricky and her evidence was not exactly water-tight. “She knows what she’s doing. I think they do. Or at least I can see them eating something they’re completely capable of eating, managing to produce missiles and then blowing themselves up.” Across the room, Cloud was frowning. “We never saw one just explode did we?”</p><p>“No.” His frown deepened. “But… Does this give more credence to their origins? Seems unlikely a monster would evolve to do that?”</p><p>“Nature is weird and varied.” Of this she was certain, and on this subject more than many others, both Tifa and Cloud would defer to her. All three might have spent time in the Lifestream, but Aeris alone had truly experienced a return – however brief – to the Planet and the knowledge as a result. She no longer retained specific memories pointing to an origin for the Hell Houses. Access to all knowledge in the world an exhilarating rush, but the border between where she began and stopped and – more critically – where her mind started and stopped remained vague.</p><p>Withdrawn from the Lifestream, much knowledge she had learned there remained behind. A frustrating sensation. She had known – explicitly known so many things - but the knowledge existed elsewhere in between the mass of consciousness and was thus now unavailable to her. Specific memories and theories remained (including Emergency Use Only: How to Marshal the Lifestream Itself to Boost a Spell and How to Engineer a Survivable Space for Humans Aho Ill-advisedly Fell In).</p><p>“Okay, let’s get back to the point,” Tifa said. “The fireworks.”</p><p>“You don’t like fireworks?”</p><p>“They were nice that night in the Gold Saucer,” Cloud murmured.</p><p>“I like fireworks just fine. I just had never considered doing that. So you want to put on a firework display?”</p><p>“Essentially.” Aeris grinned. “I’ve been doing research. We need some specific metals along with the gunpowder for the effects, but we ought to be able to put together something that puts the Gold Saucer to shame.” She took Tifa’s hand. “In any case, it was something I thought we could do as part of the summer? There’s a whole other list of summer-time things I want to try to. Only, I know where to get a watermelon and we’ve been swimming loads. Gunpowder and fireworks – never really had the opportunity.”</p><p>“You know-“ Tifa laid her hand on top of Aeris’s and squeezed gently. “It might help in future to start with your actual plan and not with base components.” She sighed. “Then again. You wouldn’t be you, if you did that.”</p><p>Aeris smiled. “And so glad you're here as a voice of reason. Even if I do object at times.”</p>
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